Real Disappointment and Real Issues
April 28, 2008 by f4denz.
If you are a fan, a supporter, or just a casual observer of Real Salt Lake, then you know disappointment, we have three years of it, tonight was an example of many things that have gone wrong in the last few years, but I offer no excuses, I will assign some blame (after watching the match live and then watching it again this morning to ensure that what I think I saw is really what I saw.
Well, where to start is really the question, so at least unlike last week we did not drop into a shell, but rather came out and tried to make a fight of it. Dema’s hand in the wrong place at the wrong time, and a PK makes it 1-0 DC United. I can not blame Dema too much, it did not appear that it was intentional, but rather human nature to as he was sliding to drive the ball away to extend his hand to try to balance. Would the ball lead to a goal, who knows but we know that Moreno doesn’t miss many PK’s and this one he put into the back of the net without too much problem. The first half was an interesting half as DC United made two changes, first to take out an injured Fred in the 22nd minute and then in the 41st minute Dan Stratford (a decent effort from a guy picked in the 2nd round of the supplemental draft this year). RSL really controlled the first 10-12 minutes, but the rest of the first half was much more even but DC got the better chances on goal, RSL had a couple shots on goal a free kick by Morales forcing Wells to make the save and then another Morales shot off a glancing header from Deuchar which again forced a great save by Wells. The half ended with a score of 1-0, but DC United had a much more attacking lineup in their midfield and on the other side RSL’s midfield was a very defensive midfield with Beckerman, Talley, and Kovalenko all more defensive minded and skilled players, and Morales the only real attacking force in the RSL midfield. This line up would come to haunt RSL in the second half as DC United would continue to attack up the sides and work around the clogged middle of the pitch.
Only five minutes into the second half and Moreno (not the quickest guy on the pitch) divides the RSL back line which had moved up to support an attack, he made a great pass to Emilio, who on the edge of the box was being driven out of position by Wingert with Borchers in support, when Talley slide in and fouled him from behind. There really was no need to create a 90-100% scoring chance from a PK, vs. 20% or less from the actual attack. The result was a 2-0 lead for DC United, RSL pushed back with attacking play and had a couple good attempts, but no results other than a foul outside of the box, which is interesting because just minutes before the DC announcers mention that a foul that continues into the box is a PK, but in minute 57 when that happens to RSL, no PK but rather a free kick.
Just before the free kick with the score 2-0 and RSL attacks getting no results, Jason made a couple changes to add some more pop to the attack. I think the idea was great but I didn’t like the changes, pulling Joy and expecting Talley to pick up the slack on the outside attacks (something DCU had done all match) was a mistake, I would have pulled Talley instead of Joy and still brought in Williams. I also would have considered bringing in Tino Nunez instead of Movsisyan, Nunez showed some great skills a couple weeks ago in a reserve match and Yura looked like he was just going through the motions, if we are going to reward effort in training and reserve matches, than Tino deserved his shot. Pulling Joy allowed DC United to get the ball wide a number of times after the changes and twice is cost RSL a goal. I could see that we had no one covering the wide side of the goal, and even after United burned us with a goal by Santino Quaranta in the 67th minute, we did not cover the space on the side and in the 80th minute Gallardo made us pay again. In between those two defensive collapses RSL did manage to get a goal, Talley chested a ball into the net off a corner kick and a deflection.
Now before people start thinking I am just bashing, let me tell you a couple things I was impressed or at least satisfied with, first Olave, while he may be a big physical brute and while he may have been caught out of position a couple times, he recovered well and brought a strong physical presence to go along side Nat Borchers. I also love the energy and grit of Dema Kovalenko, he is a bulldog on the pitch and was all over the place in the midfield, up the edges in attack, and on defense when needed, when you play against him, you know you were in a battle.
One major issue I saw was that after about the 20th minute we really slowed our attack of the ball in the midfield, we let a team that to be honest has more talent than we do, have time to relax on the ball and think out their next moves. We have to attack the ball from the minute it leaves the opposing third, we have the physical ability and fitness to drive teams into the ground, if you looked at the expression on several United players toward the final 10-15 minutes they were beat, and we should have been able to take advantage of that, pulling Beckerman (who had an off match- really it was the way United played him more than him doing anything wrong) for Tony Beltran after the 3rd United goal to shore up the defense again was the wrong move, Beckerman forced DC to account for him no matter if he was in attack or covering defensively, why leave Talley on the pitch, he had done nothing up to that point?
I am not sure if we really were trying to play 3 in the back, or if Talley was supposed to move to the back line, or if Borchers was meant to cover the side, but communication was not there and there were several times that RSL was simply lucky that DC United did not take advantage of that open side. If Talley is the captain of the team, he has to be responsible to ensure people are in the right place and be the coach on the pitch, be the leader. It really appeared that Wingert moved up into the midfield, that Olave moved to one side, Talley took the middle and Borchers took the other side, whatever the intent was the performance was not there.
OK, after power failures, lost usb drives, and all the issues involved in getting this one done, I am still angry, and disappointed in the performance of RSL, we did not attack when we should have, our passes were questionable for a majority of the night, and too many players seemed to be playing for themselves more than for the team. That is not typical of Jason’s lineup, and let’s hope we do not see that type of behavior again.
OFF MY SOAPBOX
RSL match summary (delayed)
April 28, 2008 by f4denz.
I am sorry that my match summary isn’t up yet, I was about 80% done last night when a power outage occurred and I lost the ability to save and post what I had been working on. I will finish my post at lunch today and post it as quickly as I can.
OFF MY SOAPBOX